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In 3000 years of
our history, people from all over the world have come and invaded us,
captured our lands, conquered our minds. From Alexander onwards. The
Greeks, the Turks, the Moguls, the Portuguese, the British,the
French, the Dutch, all of them came and looted us, took over what was
ours. Yet we have not done this to any other nation.
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We have not
conquered anyone. We have not grabbed their land, their culture,
their history and tried to enforce our way of life on them. Why?
Because we respect the freedom of others. That is why my first vision
is that of FREEDOM. I believe that India got its first
vision of this in 1857, when we started the war of independence. It
is this freedom that we must protect and nurture and build on. If we
are not free, no one will respect us.
My second vision for India
is DEVELOPMENT. For fifty years we have been a developing nation. It
is time we see ourselves as a developed nation. We are among top 5
nations of the world in terms of GDP We have 10 percent growth rate
in most areas. Our poverty levels are falling. Our achievements are
being globally recognized today. Yet we lack the self-confidence to
see ourselves as a developed nation, self- reliant and self-assured.
Isn't this incorrect?
I have a THIRD vision.
India
must stand up to the world. Because I believe that, unless India
stands up to the world, no one will respect us. Only strength
respects
strength. We must be strong not only as a military power but also as
an economic power. Both must go hand-in-hand. My good fortune was to
have worked with three great minds. Dr. Vikram Sarabhai of the Dept.
of space,Professor Satish Dhawan, who succeeded him and Dr.Brahm
Prakash, father of nuclear material. I was lucky to have worked with
all three of them closely and consider this the great opportunity of
my life.
I see four milestones in my career:
Twenty years I spent in ISRO. I was given the opportunity to be the
project director for India's
first satellite launch vehicle, SLV3. The one that
launched Rohini. These years played a very important role in my life
of Scientist. After my ISRO years, I joined DRDO and got a chance to
be the part of India's
guided missile program. It was my second bliss when Agni met its
mission requirements in 1994.
The Dept. of Atomic Energy and DRDO had this tremendous partnership
in the recent nuclear tests, on May 11 and 13. This was the third
bliss. The joy of participating with my team in these nuclear tests and
proving to the world that India can make it, that we are no longer a
developing nation but one of them. It made me feel very proud as an
Indian. The fact that we have now developed for Agni a re-entry
structure, for which we have developed this new material. A Very
light material called carbon-carbon.One day an orthopedic surgeon
from Nizam Institute of Medical Sciences visited my laboratory. He
lifted the material and found it so light that he took me to his
hospital and showed me his patients. There were these little girls
and boys with heavy metallic calipers weighing over three Kg.
each,dragging their feet around. He said to me: Please remove the
pain of my patients. In three weeks, we made these Floor reaction
Orthosis 300-gram calipers and took them to the orthopedic center.
The children didn't believe their eyes. From dragging around a three
kg. load on their legs, they could now move around! Their parents had
tears in their eyes. That was my fourth bliss! Why is the media here
so negative? Why are we in India so embarrassed
to recognize our own strengths, our achievements? We are such a great
nation.
We have so many amazing success stories but we refuse to acknowledge
them. Why?
We are the first in milk production.
We are number one in Remote sensing satellites.
We are the second largest producer of wheat.
We are the second largest producer of rice.
Look at Dr. Sudarshan, he has transferred the tribal village into a
self-sustaining, self driving unit. There are millions of such
achievements but our media is only obsessed in the bad news and
failures and disasters.
I was in Tel Aviv once and I was reading the Israeli newspaper. It
was the day after a lot of attacks and bombardments and deaths had
taken place. The Hamas had struck. But the front page of the
newspaper had the picture of a Jewish gentleman who in five years had
transformed his desert land into an orchid and a granary. It was this
inspiring picture that everyone woke up to. The gory details of
killings, bombardments, deaths, were inside in the newspaper, buried
among other news. In India
we only read about death, sickness, terrorism, crime. Why are
we so NEGATIVE?
Another question : Why are we, as a nation so obsessed with foreign
things? We want foreign TVs, we want foreign shirts. We want foreign
technology.Why this obsession with everything imported. Do we not
realize that self-respect comes with self-reliance? I was in Hyderabad giving
this lecture, when a 14 year old girl asked me for my autograph. I
asked her what her goal in life is. She replied: I want to live in a
developed India.
For her, you and I will have to build this developed India.
You must proclaim. India
is not an under-developed nation; it is a highly developed nation.
Do you have 10 minutes? Allow me to
come back with a vengeance. Got 10 minutes for your country? If yes,
then read; otherwise, choice
is yours. YOU say that our government is inefficient.YOU say that our
laws are too old.YOU say that the municipality does not pick up the
garbage.YOU say that the phones don' t work, the railways are a joke,
the airline is the worst in the world, mails never reach their
destination.
YOU say that our country has been fed to the dogs and is the absolute
pits.YOU say, say and say. What do YOU do about it?
Take a person on his way to Singapore..... Give him a
name - YOURS. Give him a face - YOURS. YOU walk out of the airport
and you are at your International best. In Singapore you don't throw
cigarette butts on the roads or eat in the stores. YOU are as proud
of their Underground links as they are. You pay $5 (approx. Rs.60) to
drive through Orchard Road
(equivalent of Mahim Causeway or Pedder Road)
between
5 PM and 8 PM. YOU comeback to the parking lot to punch your parking
ticket if you have over stayed in a restaurant or a shopping mall
irrespective of your status identity. In Singapore you don't say
anything, DO YOU? YOU wouldn't dare to eat in public during Ramadan,
in Dubai.
YOU would not dare to go out without your head covered in Jeddah. YOU
would not dare to buy an employee of the telephone exchange in London at 10
pounds ( Rs.650) a month to, "see to it that my STD and ISD
calls are billed to someone else." YOU would not dare to speed
beyond 55 mph (88 km/h) in Washington
and then tell the traffic cop, "Jaanta hai main kaun hoon (Do
you know who I am?). I am so and so's son. Take your two bucks and
get lost." YOU wouldn't chuck an empty coconut shell anywhere
other than the garbage pail on the beaches in Australia and New Zealand. Why don't
YOU spit Paan on the streets of Tokyo?Why
don't YOU use examination jockeys or buy fake certificates in Boston???We are
still talking of the same YOU.
YOU who can respect and conform to a foreign system in other
countries but cannot in your own.You who will throw papers and
cigarettes on the road the moment you touch Indian ground. If you can
be an involved and appreciative citizen in an alien country, why
cannot you be the same here in India?
Once in an interview, the famous Ex-municipal commis sioner of Bombay,Mr.Tinaikar,
had a point to make. "Rich people's dogs are walked on the
streets to leave their affluent droppings all over the place,"
he said. "And then the same people turn around to criticize and
blame the
authorities for inefficiency and dirty pavements. What do they expect
the officers to do? Go down with a broom every time their dog feels
the
pressure in his bowels? In America
every dog owner has to clean up after his pet has done the job.Same
in Japan.
Will the Indian citizen do that here?"
He's right. We go to the polls to choose a government and after that
forfeit all responsibility. We sit back wanting to be pampered and
expect the government to do everything for us whilst our contribution
is totally negative. We expect the government to clean up but we are
not going to stop chucking garbage all over the place nor are we
going to stop to pick a up a stray piece of paper and throw it in the
bin. We expect the railways to provide clean bathrooms but we are not
going to learn the proper use of bathrooms. We want Indian Airlines
and Air India to provide the best of food and toiletries but we are
not going to stop pilfering at the least opportunity.This applies
even to the staff who is known not to pass on the service to the
public. When it comes to burning social issues like those related to
women, dowry, girl child and others, we make loud drawing room
protestations and continue to do the reverse at home. Our excuse?
"It's the whole system which has to change, how will it matter
if I alone forego my sons' rights to a dowry." So who's going to
change the system? What does a system consist of? Very conveniently
for us it consists of our neighbors, other households, other cities,
other communities and the government. But definitely not me and YOU.
When it comes to us actually making a positive contribution to the
system we lock ourselves along with our families into a safe cocoon
and look into the distance at countries far away and wait for a Mr.
Clean to come along & work miracles for us with a majestic sweep
of his hand or we leave the country and run away.
Like lazy cowards hounded by our fears we run to America to bask in their
glory and praise their system. When New York
becomes insecure we run to England. When England
experiences unemployment, we take the next flight out to the Gulf.
When the Gulf is war struck, we demand to be rescued and brought home
by the Indian government. Everybody is out to abuse and rape the
country. Nobody thinks of feeding the system. Our conscience is
mortgaged to money.
Dear Indians, The article is highly thought inductive, calls for a
great deal of introspection and pricks one's conscience too....I am
echoing
J.F.Kennedy's words to his fellow Americans to relate to Indians.....
"ASK WHAT WE CAN DO FOR INDIA AND DO WHAT HAS TO BE DONE TO MAKE
INDIA WHAT AMERICA AND OTHER WESTERN COUNTRIES ARE TODAY" Lets
do what India needs from us.
Forward this mail to each Indian for a change instead of sending
Jokes or junk mails.
Thank you,
Dr. Abdul Kalaam
( PRESIDENT OF INDIA
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